The orchard is waking up. Hurrah! blossom will soon be here. The trees sleep is over, and so is the gardeners – it’s time to get on the job!
Make it a habit to wander your trees regularly – better than any fertiliser is this friendship that happens, when you spend time with your trees. Get to know them through every stage: from bud break to blossom to pollination to fruit development to harvest to leaf fall. Notice too, as they shoot away, how they respond to your pruning cuts.
Deciduous Fruit Trees
The truth of healthy deciduous trees, lies not in what you add but in the environment you create.
They thrive where they are well suited to the conditions – I cannot stress this enough! Your trees and their rootstock (especially their rootstock) must suit your soil type. The other key aspect is that they are linked into a diverse relationship of groundcover plants, with a humming soil biology at their feet.
With all this sorted, the only fertiliser that’s required is a shovel of homemade compost and a woody mulch – that’s it!
Though, even this will change over time – the need for compost will likely fade away as your trees grow and the groundcovers beneath establish. Let your trees lead the way, they’ll show whether or not all is well, as will your annual soil test. Scattering wood chip hither and yon remains valuable as does a few biological sprays throughout the growing season.
Your garden evolves, and just like you and I – its feeding needs change. Stay in touch and adapt as you go.
My Basic Regime
Spread compost beneath the tree – not alot, especially if its bought stuff which is super concentrated. Be guided by your base soil. Use a bit more compost if you are on heavy clay or sand. If existing mulch is nicely breaking down, just go on top. If the mulch is raw, draw it back. If there is grass beneath your trees, lay wet cardboard first.
Top it off with a mixed woody mulch. The woody mulch is probably the most important bit. Toss some of the chips all over the orchard as well, to spread the fungal advantage. The power is when you address the whole area.
Use this same programme for bramble fruits.
Strawberries
Strawberries are shallow rooted + hungry!
They need something grunty right close to their roots. Rotten manure mixed through homemade compost and applied generously is my favourite. Mulch goes without saying, to keep the compost moist, the microbes happy and the fruits clean.
Slugs will turn up – they love strawbs. A night hunt at this time of year is the business. Toss them in a bucket of salty water as you go.
Citrus + Subtropicals
Don’t rush into feeding citrus and subtropicals (passionfruits, tamarillos, avocados). Feed them once the soil and weather begins to warm, which for some of you will be now and others like me, will be October.
Pull back the mulch and inspect the soil. Based on what you see + smell, spread a fine layer of compost + top it with mulch. If the soil needs a bit more add a bit extra before replacing the mulch – well rotten manure, vermicastings, fishwaste or seaweed.
A lump of wood nestled into the mulch is an awesome slow release addition and a great use for those too hard to split knotty bits in the firewood pile.
Kath hi, I live in Wellington and we haven’t been able to buy straw for a year or so because of the pea blight that affected the Wairarapa I think it was. The ban on selling it is for 2 years so a year to go. My compost is mainly vege scraps and soil so not as good for using as a mulch. What else could I use as a mulch around fruit trees and strawberries.
Thanks very much
Hi Shirley
Nice to hear from you!
Yes – good not to use compost as mulch… it needs to be kept moist in order for the goodness to be usable.
I like to make my own mulch mix up from whats I’ve got around. Its also a great idea to alternate mulches from year to year.. prevent disease build up from one particular thing, also the variety is way better for your soil life (the main reason we mulch in the first place)
Fruit trees do well with something woody in the mulch mix. These are the things I use – well rotted sawdust (excellent for strawberries), wood shavings (not nuggets), leaves, bracken, pineneedles, trimmings off woody herbs like rosemary, lavendar or rotted hay. My preference is to mix a few together. This mix makes for the very best mulch! This article may help you https://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/how-to-feed-and-mulch-your-fruit-trees/
Also if it suits your place comfrey is the ultimate fruit tree “living mulch” https://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/comfrey-planting-time-is-here-how-to-plan-plant-and-harvest/
You can also use a physical barrier around your strawbs – black plastic, weedmat, hessian – whatever tickles your fancy. Peg it down with tent pegs. Helps keep the fruit clean and the slaters and slugs not so keen!
Hope this helps Kath
Kath hi, that’s great thank you. Lots of tips to keep me going thanks. I have plenty of woody things I’ve cut up and left by the hedge so will use those.
Hi Shirley,
I’ve just read your question to Kath and thought I’d add (if you didn’t know already) that Otari bush currently have a mountain of mulch free for anyone to take from their northern car park. 🙂
How cool – thanks Paula!
What’s ‘rotten manure’…manure is already rotten is it?
I hear ya Julian – but we want it more rotten, perhaps collapsed and unrecognisable as poop is a better description!
Hi Kath, thanks for your videos – really helpful. I’ve been trimming citrus today and was following the ‘vase’ shape but I see your lemon on this blog is busy and boisterous – should I just let my citrus do stay shrub like or try and maximise light get onto the branches? Thx! Suze ps. tied down my first peach today – looks like a weeping cherry now – looking forward to seeing how it respond. Only broke one branch by being too enthusiastic about it’s bendiness, casualties of learning…
Citrus need thinning only – they fruit on new seasons wood. Also they need air and light, so just get in and thin the clutter by pruning right back to the trunk or another branch. Aim to kind of see through to the other side Remove lower branches so the fruits dont end up on the ground and to create go airflow and remove any spiky shoots coming from the rootstock.
Love the peach story – yip have broken many branches in my time – the worst idea ever was tying off to bottles filled with water that moved in a storm and broke 4 perfectly placed branches on my Tydemans Late which now is a totally funky shape!!
Better to tie down when they’re actively growing… they’re more flexible than when they’re dormant.
HI Kath, I was trying to find a blog on how you make your hay into seed-free mulch – sorry if you have made one and I missed it. I was wondering the following:
-On grass so the seed never make it into the garden? Or on bare ground?
-Do you cover it with a water permeable layer? eg fadge
-Piled up or thin layer?
=How long for and do you leave it to rest for?
I saw a image on another blog of hay piled up outside about a metre high so I’m guessing piling is the go. Also I heard you say on an interview that you let sprout – can it do this on all layers when it’s piled up?
Is baleage a good alternative since the seed should have been rendered inactive by being cooked in the wrap?
Thanks very much!
Suze
The way with hay or baleage is to think of it like firewood and get it in ahead of time, leave it out in the weather to sprout then cover it to kill the sprouts. If times are desperate and you need to use it – be prepared at the first sign of green fuzz to flip it over. Fresh hay makes more work down the track so avoid using it if you can!
Hi Kath You often speak of a full spectrum mineral fertiliser what is that and where can I get it
Love your monthly emails regards Josie
Check out Fodda Josie – http://www.fodda.co.nz
Hi kath, what full spectrum mineral fertilizer do you recommend. Have you found any that are organic certified?
I currently use the EM Garden boost that contains Fish Hydrolysate + Effective Microorganisms (EM).. does that cover off the mineral fertilizer required? or is that different. I also have gypsum as we have lots of clay!
Check out Fodda Mel for your full spectrum fert – http://www.fodda.co.nz
Perfect,Thanks
Love your blog Kath. What sort of gypsum is best? We are on very clayey soil here in Wellington.
Often can be bout in paper bags – which is the option I go for. Other than that gypsum is pretty much gypsum.
Hi Kath
Long time lurker, first tine querier, thanks for all the fab content!.
We scored a deal on a last-in-stock Hawera plum at the local garden centre a few months back- discount due to an old wound on the trunk, it looks like the poor thing was bent to breaking and a strip of bark came away. It’s now long healed – what would you recommend to address this? Cut the flap off, wrap, glue, leave perfectly alone?!
Photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15Flc9ydHNLverqmcezv5w4zepB-aS66l?usp=sharing
Ta
I’d cut it off. Nice sharp tool. Clean cut. If youve got EM spray some on. Job tidy 🙂
Thanks Kath!!
Hi Kath. Long term reader and applier of your useful advice, thanks. I wanted to say that I found myself wondering why you recommended Fodda broad spectrum fertiliser.
I acknowledge that you were answering a direct question, and that you always tell us to make our own plant foods and use what is on hand, but I had a look at the Fodda website for that fertiliser and thought it very expensive. No doubt it would help, but I didn’t feel it would be superior enough to warrant that outlay unless for a tiny garden. I use a bit of commercial liquid seaweed as its handy, plus various homegrown manure/water, and sheep pellets. It seemed a little odd to see a particular product being promoted as there are tons and tons out there so my curiosity got the better of me. Again, thanks for all the great help.
Greetings Jill,
Thanks for your question.
The thing is to do what feels right for you. Nothing more. Nothing less. I just share the good places that I know and trust as a starting point. Take them up or not is your fine call. I’m not in bed as it were with any company – you wont see my face anywhere else but here.
Also, there are many other great options out there for you to explore and use. I dont have the time to test every product – when I find something good I just stick with it.
Good to me means tested, balanced, organic and living. Also the kaupapa of the company is very important to me – recycled, reused, living wage all come into it. While that may put the price up of the product – it is, to me the true cost. Most cheap fertilisers are cheap on the wallet, and very costly on the earth.
I dont tautoko sheep pellets off non organic farms because of the high levels of cadmium – I dont fancy having cadmium filled lettuce for dinner. Better to use seaweed or leaves or grass clippings or some such.
I hope this helps
Love Kath.